Category Archives: Medical Clinic

Medical Clinic

Dangerous Delivery

Yesterday we had a lot of rain. It was steady for about three hours in the afternoon and started again in the evening. It seemed strong to me, but Suzy assured me there will be storms that are a lot worse.

Last night I walked over to the clinic for something and Margaret called me in to look at something. A mother in labor had just arrived. Margaret wanted to show me what happens when a home delivery goes bad. This mom had been in labor since 5:00am the previous morning. She was fully dilated and the baby’s head was really low. Now I am no birthing expert, but I could tell things were not as it should be “down there.” It was extremely swollen. Most women choose to give birth at home with the assistance of a TBA (traditional birth attendant). TBAs get paid 100 Sudanese pounds if the baby is a boy and 150 if it is a girl. Because they get paid well, they don’t want women to deliver at a hospital. They are very hesitant to release the mother because then they won’t get paid. Most of the TBAs have no training. As a result, the infant mortality rate is very high. Last week, a perfectly healthy baby was brought to the clinic immediately after the home delivery. It was already dead because the TBA did not tie the cord and the baby bled to death. It was the same TBA who came with the mother last night. She should have known after a few hours of pushing there was a problem. Instead she waited more than 36 hours to bring the mother in. We had a whole bunch of people in there trying to help this poor woman. It was her first baby so she had no idea what was going on and that this was abnormal. Margaret, Priscila, Garrett (a visitor from the US), Pritty (our new pharmacist), Hargins and I were all trying to help. She was so tired we had to hold her legs up for her. After pushing for a while, the baby did not budge. She was given medicine to help the uterus contract, but after a while, the contractions completely stopped. Additionally, the baby’s heart rate was irregular. At that point, there was nothing we could do for her. She needed to go to a hospital right away. We told the family to make arrangements for her to go to Wau. Had she come in yesterday, she could have gone to Wau in our car that left in the morning. Due to the rain, she was not able to travel at night. Fortunately our car went back to Wau today so we were able to send her to the hospital.

Please pray for the mother and the baby. I will keep you updated on her status

—Stacie

Medical Clinic, Ministry

Sabet asks for prayer

Today there was another shooting in the town. A soldier was shot trying to disarm a civilian. Our clinic treated him and Sabet prayed with him to receive Christ before he was taken to Wau hospital. There is much tension as the elections near this weekend. Please be in prayer for Sabet and our teams safety.

Kuj Family, Medical Clinic

Good Friday on the Road

It rained all night and was still raining when we left at 6:30 am.  After 1hour of driving we stopped at Kijabe to see Hargins and Nyangeu.  The child was sleeping and had experienced some fever during the night following her surgery.  We are still waiting on the neurosurgeon’s diagnosis.  After leaving Hargins home-made chicken soup, fruits, books and a small portable DVD player to watch some movies, we headed back up the hill in thick fog to the main road and headed for Naivasha.  As soon as we passed through, the cloud and rain cleared.  We stopped at the Delamere farmers market and stocked up on cheap fruit and veg.  Two hours later we were making great time and in Nakuru.  So far the roads were good and traffic not too heavy.  Only one stretch of road works to deal with which slowed us down a little.  It took longer than we thought to get to Eldoret, partly because the road was so severely ingrained by the heavy trucks going up the mountain and the ridge in the middle kept hitting the bottom of our vehicle.  We stopped once more to buy a bucket of potatoes for 80 shillings ($1)and then drove straight through Eldoret and onto Kitale.  Now that road was bad and 5 minutes of swaying around to avoid massive craters in the road, Agum started throwing up. But we finally made it by 3pm.  One neat thing we saw several times were church groups walking along the side of the road carry large crosses in remembrance of the day Jesus carried His cross to Calvary.

Kuj Family, Medical Clinic, Ministry

Nairobi Without Sabet

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I haven’t been blogging very consistently over the past year and as I read back over my beginning blogs, I cried as I relived those moments and remembered the Lord’s faithfulness and I realized I want to be more consistent in this area. I will try and update a few times a week.

This past week has been crazy!!

Friday March 19th – Sabet called to say they had to medivac another small child from Sudan who was shot in the face and the nearest hospital was closed.  So now I’m on stand-by as I wait for news.  I’ve been working around the clock and I’m so tired.  Matoch has been sleeping in my room and having night terrors caused by post traumatic stress from being shot.  The kids sleep right through his screams as he recounts the terrible things he experienced.  It’s painful to watch him in such distress and the only comfort is in the morning he doesn’t remember a thing. 

Saturday March 20th – As the time approached for the plane to arrive in Tonj, I was busy making breakfast in Nairobi for my kids.  Sabet said he would fly one of our Sudanese workers with the shot child as her father was also shot in the leg and not able to travel and her mother was killed.  But I suddenly felt that Hargins was supposed to come with her instead.  She’s one of our medical clinic nurse aids, a Kenyan and can stay indefinitely with the child at Kijabe, unlike Albino who could  only come for a few days.  The plan, to bring out Hargins and send in Stacie to replace her and cover the compound while Sabet goes to Juba to file paperwork.  So with only 10 munites to spare, Sabet rearranged all the plans and Hargins came with the child.  After arranging this, I went off to interview 6 people for 2  positions in our medical clinic.  Dennis, our clinical officer, helped me but it took 5 hours!!  It’s so hard to choose when you know how difficult life is in Africa and everyone needs a job.  After that I went home and crashed out, just hit a wall!!  Stacie kept the kids entertained so I could take a nap.  Hargins and the child arrived in Nairobi late that evening and due to security, we chose to keep her for the night and take her the next day to Kijabe hospital.  Stacie is excited about going back to Sudan.

Sunday March 21st – This was a hard day.  Matoch seemed very sad for the first time, maybe because of seeing the other child that was shot, I’m not sure.  Jed was picked up by friends and taken to church, that could also be a reason. The child was admitted but no treatment was done today.  This process took all day!!  I stayed home with the kids while Gordon drove to Kijabe, after they were there all day, I was glad I didn’t go with the children.

Monday March 22nd – In my mad dash to evacuate 3 weeks ago, all I could think about was homeschool!!  Especially for Hannah as she is in grade 3 and it would be difficult to do catch up.  So I chucked as many homeschool books as I could in a box and didn’t do too bad!  We are missing only one book!!  So school, which will stop for one month over Easter, is not going too bad in the midst of what feels like chaos.   My quiet moments are found at 5am, where I can read my bible uninterrrupted and receive my Lord’s refreshment for my soul.  It’s been 3 weeks since we saw Sabet and I have to say I don’t like it!  I detest being without him especially in a city like Nairobi, where he makes me feel safe.  One blessing though about being in Kenya verses Sudan is the ‘Monday Movie Madness’ at the cinema’s here.  We get to watch a movie, eat a hotdog, popcorn and soda for just $7!!  We took Matoch with us, I’ve never seen anyone eat so fast, he couldn’t believe the food.  I think the movie bored him after about 10 minutes, maybe the language barrier or maybe he just can’t understand why hiwadger’s (white folk) find it so entertaining.  He just wants to be outside all the time.  It was still fun to take him.

Tuesday March 23rd – Today is Matoch’s final appointment and possibly day in Nairobi.  Off to Kijabe we went, stopping in the children’s ward to see Hargins and then off to find Matoch’s doctor.  After being directed to 3 different places within the hospital, we finally found the waiting room, with over 100 people in front of us.  Aaah…I only have a babysitter until 3pm.  The maintenance guy told me when Dr. Ntumba arrived and I walked up to him and asked him to see Matoch right away and he did!  What a blessing.  He took off some scabs and cleaned the wound but was pretty satisfied that Matoch could fly the next day.  Back to the kids ward and Hargins was very concerned that Nyangeu was not getting the attention she needs.  Her head was continuing to swell and now her arm also.  So  I called the sister who kindly advised us she was waiting for a catscan, which has to be done in Nairobi (an hour drive).  I convinced then to let me go with them and bring them back to speed up the process and they agreed, so off we went.  They returned that night but there is no neurosurgeon to read the scan, so we are now waiting as they send the scan to USA for reading.  We have a saying “T.I.A…This Is Africa”  and it sure is!!  So no news to date on her condition, accept the doctors said the swelling is normal for the type of injury she sustained.  Dennis, Stacie, Matoch and our new nurse/midwife Priscilla all slept over for preparation for the early morning departure to Sudan.  It feels very strange not to be going with them.

Wednesday March 24th – I was a little sad and relieved all at the same time to send Matoch home, we are going to miss him.  As you can see from the photo’s, Matoch and Jed became fast friends, Jed calls him his brother!!  The team left early up to Loki and connected to a MAF caravan full of medicine for the clinic.  I spent a quiet day catching up on paperwork and school.  At 2pm the plane arrived in Tonj.  Matoch was reunited with his family.  Sabet hopped  on the flight to be dropped in Juba to file our exemption papers.  The team arrived exactly at the same time another cattle raid happened, about 30 minute drive from Tonj in a remote village.  Again many were shot but one man was badly injured, shot 4 times, one of which was in the throat.  He was brought to our clinic for treatment and the team were thrown into full speed.  The man was taken to Wau but again the hospital was closed.  The lady from last week’s raid was still there waiting for treatment, she was shot in the arm and leg.  This is so sad to me to see people in such horrendous circumstances.  Oh, did I mention, I slept like a baby after several weeks of dealing with Matoch’s  night terrors!

Thursday March 25th – MAF sent their small plane to Tonj to collect the patients and take them to Juba hospital, but only the throat guy agreed to go.  His condition is serious and he needs to go to Nairobi or Khartoum, as the Juba facility said they can’t help him.  Please pray for him as we figure out what to do next.  This of course overshadowed what Sabet came to Juba to do.  So pray for favor on him also.  Everyone in Tonj is OK, and Sabet is coping with Juba, making connections.  Today, the power went off, and if you homeschool using DVD’s like  we do, that’s not good.  So I made the decision to start purchasing things for our BIG truck haul to Tonj.  First stop, bathroom stuff…toilets, sinks, shower heads etc.  While out and about, a call came from AIM, they can take cargo up to Loki for me if I have any, the catch, it has to be at the AIM hangar by 12 noon and it’s already 10am.  Mmmmm…I did just place a medical order, I wonder if I could get it and deliver it by that time?  This is what I love about what I do here.  The logisitcs, putting all the pieces together and making it work.  Yes, Gordon and I managed to get the meds, and delivered them at 12:10pm!!  I got back to the house and the power was still off!!  Now my computer had died and my phone so I was left no other option but to read, so I spent valuable time with my Lord until 6pm.  It was wonderful!

Friday March 26th – Yeah!  Sabet gets to fly to Nairobi tonight on a MAF shuttle from Juba, spend the weekend with us and return on Monday to complete his work.  We really need this time together, the kids and I miss him so much.  It’s been 4 weeks since we saw him.  I’ve arranged a surprise one-night getaway at Mount Kenya!!  Thank you Lord for bringing my hubby back to us.

Medical Clinic, Ministry

Pray for Nyangeu!

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This 3 yr old child was shot during a cattle raid last Thursday.  It has taken us 2 days to get her to Nairobi.  Her mother was killed and her father was also shot.  One of our medical staff, a Kenyan, arrived with her tonight in Nairobi and Suzy has arranged for them to go to Kijabe Missions Hospital in the morning.  She is so lost and afraid.  Please pray for Nyangeu to have peace and for wisdom for the surgeons and provision to treat this child.  Pray also for the many gunshot victims we were not able to fly out and get treatment.  Pray the hospital in Wau can help them.